Ken Burns' The Civil War: A Film Directed By Ken Burns

Pros: vivid pictures, descriptions, and accounts of experiences during the Civil War

Cons: none

The Bottom Line: The documentary that first brought Ken Burns on many people's radar is a must-see and worth a second look if you haven't watched it in a while.

Review: It is well that war is so terrible… we should grow too fond of it… - Robert E. Lee watching the battle of Fredericksburg. An anecdote about Wilmer McClain, who moved his family from Bull Run, where a Union shell landed in the ...

Pros: Fine (if sometimes inaccurate) script, great narrator, and always-interesting presentation

Cons: A few factual errors do show up.

The Bottom Line: Although far from perfect, The Civil War is the standard by which most TV historical documentaries are measured. A stunning achievement and must-see TV!

Review: "We have felt the incommunicable experience of war. We felt - we still feel - the passion of life to its top. In our youths our hearts were touched with fire." - Oliver Wendell Holmes. On September 23, 1990, just as units of the XVIII ...

Pros: The entire production, approach, commentary, photography and cinematography.

Cons: None.

The Bottom Line: The Civil War Comes Alive in this Epic Documentary!!!!!

Review: Ken Burns Civil War: One of the Best Documentaries Ever Made!


1989 saw the airing of "The Civil War", a brilliant 9-part and 13 hour documentary on PBS. 2002 has seen the entire series remastered from the original tapes and editing from...

Pros: Unforgettable factual storytelling

Cons: Too intense for children

Review: Ken Burns' documentary masterpiece "The Civil War" is a titanic work of historical filmmaking and among the most moving works of storytelling, either factual or fictional, I've ever seen. Spanning the entire war, as well as a bit before and...

Pros: Great Pictures-Haunting Music-Chilling Voice-Overs

Cons: Not Sure There Are Any

Review: To tell you all that this series has to offer would be impossable! What follows are my thoughts and ideas about the videos!

Ken Burns has taken so many different sources and made them into a living history about one of this country's most...

Pros: The final word on Civil War documentaries

Cons: Still looking

Review: Simply, this is the most amazing Civil War documentary that I have every seen. The scope and detail of the film is awesome with historians giving opinions and a great soundtrack to set the mood.
The retelling of the battles is so real that the...

Pros: Everything

Cons: Too slow for some

Review: If there is a such thing as a documentary mainstream, Ken Burns helped create it with this masterpiece. Never before had a strictly historical documentary been able to grab the attention of the masses to such an extent. Every history buff in the...

Pros: Compelling archival photos

Cons: Poorly told, slow-paced, and much too shallow for it's length

The Bottom Line: If you don't know much about the Civil War, this is a lousy place to start. If you do, it's a tedious and thin eleven-plus hours.

Review: It goes against PBS-fan (though perhaps not Civil-War-buff) orthodoxy to pan this Ken Burns documentary on which so much encomium has been heaped. But it has to be said: The Civil War is thin, irregular, and given it's stupefying length (eleven ...